Story of the coin: Bytecoin

Bytecoin is a cryptocurrency that was first to implement the CryptoNote protocol. Bytecoin made a significant impact on the cryptocurrency industry and remains to be one of the most popular coins on the market to this day. Bytecoin became a base for multiple forks, some of which are Monero, AEON, and Fantomcoin.

Bytecoin has most of the features inherent to Bitcoin but compliments it with its own ideas and technological solutions that make it faster, safer and add a focus on the privacy of the users. Bytecoin, similarly to Bitcoin, is decentralized and has no central authority. Its development is community driven and its governance is performed by the miners of the coin.

Why was it needed?

Bytecoin was established as an alternative to Bitcoin with its SHA-256-based Proof-of-Work to fix a problem of very high demands on the computing power of user’s equipment that PoW-based networks make on the later stages of functioning. In 2014, when Bytecoin was publicly announced, it was already very hard to mine Bitcoin with mediocre equipment and the ASIC miners became extensively used, excluding the ordinary users from the participating in the governance of Bitcoin. The Bytecoin team implemented the CryptoNote protocol, upgrading it into the CryptoNight proof-of-work algorithm, which allowed the Bytecoin network to be ASIC-resistant, CPU-minable and approachable for the users with the average mining gear.

In addition to the huge advantages in terms of mining, CryptoNight provided the cryptocurrency with untraceable payments, unlinkable transactions, blockchain analysis resistance, and several other privacy and security-centered features that were missed in Bitcoin.

Who did it?

The CryptoNote protocol, which is a foundation of Bytecoin, was developed by Nicolas van Saberhagen. The team behind the Bytecoin development remained anonymous and operates under the nicknames of PACIFIC_SKYLINE, AMJUAREZ and several others.

Bytecoin’s popularity

Bytecoin is a very popular cryptocurrency ranking 38 in terms of market capitalization according to CoinMarketCap.com at the time of writing this article. It currently has a market cap of $245 441 281. It is traded on the majority of the cryptocurrency exchanges and is an often choice for transactions that demand additional privacy. However, despite the significant popularity in the community, Bytecoin is not very successful in the connections with enterprises and traditional institutions. It is possibly the case due to the reputation of a go-to crypto for illegal transactions and the lack of public representation from the development team.

Bytecoin and its competitors

Bytecoin is far from being an only crypto with a focus on the privacy of transactions. It is in rivalry with many popular coins including such crucial parts of the cryptocurrency industry as Monero, Zcash, Komodo, and others. Both Monero and Zcash are more popular cryptocurrencies that Bytecoin, they are significantly bigger in terms of capitalization and the trading volume. However, Bytecoin managed to build a loyal and active community that constantly participates in the development of the coin. The updates and forks of Bytecoin often gather a lot of attention from the cryptocurrency community. The Bytecoin team is a major contributor to the development of CryptoNote protocol and is a producer of important technological solutions, that helps it stand out in the blockchain world.

The future

Bytecoin is a prominent part of the cryptocurrency history. It has made a major contribution to the blockchain world, starting a race of privacy, accessibility, and ASIC-resistance between blockchain projects. Its advantages were acclaimed by the blockchain analysts and cryptographers. However, for quite some time Bytecoin didn’t provide any noticeable product and is in need of some substantial breakthrough to remain relevant. The good thing for Bytecoin is that its development community is famous for a strong technical background, creative approach and sincere concerns about the privacy of users.

The mining of Bytecoin is still very approachable in contrast to Bitcoin’s and is possible to perform profitably on almost every category of mining gear. It is a good option for the new participants of the cryptocurrency community and is a good choice to spend some computing power in terms of the possible future outcomes.